By Adam Carey
The wide and winding residential streets of Rowville are lined with rows of mature gum trees that were planted by the council 30 to 40 years ago. The trees tower over houses and give the suburb a leafy character and clear connection to the nearby Dandenong Ranges.
To some residents, the trees are majestic, to others a suburban menace that belongs in the bush.
Buckingham Street in Rowville, where mature native trees have been investigated for removal. Credit: Paul Jeffers
On Monday, Knox City Council will debate a report on the cost and consequences of removing more than 150 of Rowville’s most established native trees, following calls for their replacement with less imposing trees by a now former councillor, Darren Pearce, last year.
The council’s report found that removing the trees would cost it almost half a million dollars it has not budgeted for, reduce habitat for wildlife, and increase urban heat and energy consumption.
It also presented the results of a local survey in which almost 78 per cent of residents who responded reported a “negative perception” of the trees. Reasons given included the cost and time involved in cleaning up fallen leaves and gumnuts, damage to footpaths, the trees’ large size and safety risks from falling branches.
More than half of respondents favoured removing trees that cause problems over regular pruning and maintenance.
Knox councillor Susan Pearce, who used the slogan “people before trees” in her election campaign last year, said the council ought to listen to residents who want them replaced.
“We’ve got unsuitable trees that are too big for our footpaths and they’re causing damage, not only to footpaths but to people’s homes, through blocking sewage pipes and those types of things,” Pearce, Darren Pearce’s wife, said.
Knox city councillor Susan Pearce says the large trees have become a problem and ought to be replaced.Credit: Paul Jeffers
She said Rowville’s leafiness was one of its best qualities, and any removed tree would be replaced with a different species better suited to the residential area.
“When trees start to cause damage, then we’ve got a problem,” she said.
Inspections for the council report found that most trees in the five streets in question are in good health, “with minor issues such as dead wood and minor footpath displacement.
“These are manageable through routine maintenance like pruning and asphalt wedging,” the report said.
Knox, in Melbourne’s outer east, has set a target to increase its urban tree canopy cover to 30 per cent by 2050. In 2018, it had 18 per cent and coverage was believed to be declining.
Ten years ago, it felled about 400 mature gum trees in Rowville and replaced them with smaller ornamental pear trees, which shed their leaves in autumn.
Knox Environment Society president Richard Faragher said the volunteer group opposed the removal of mature street trees, especially natives that benefit local wildlife. Faragher said the trees provided “beautiful streetscapes” in Rowville, plenty of shade and food for native birds.
“I’d be rapt to have those trees in my street,” he said. “When I walk around my community, I’d like to know that I’m living in Australia, and one of the best ways to know that is to have eucalypts as street trees. I don’t want to wake up in some bland suburb that could be anywhere in the world. I just don’t see that as being a win.”
On Buckingham Drive, 78 native trees have been investigated for potential removal. They tower over houses and front yards, their twisty limbs alive with lorikeets, cockatoos and noisy miner birds.
The trees’ thick roots dominate the nature strips, where grass struggles to grow. The footpaths are carpeted with twigs, gumnuts and leaves. The paths are level and in good condition, though many pavers near the bulging tree roots have been replaced.
Resident Alan Sanders has no tree in front of his home. The council removed it several years ago after a large limb split and dropped in a storm.
A row of ornamental pear trees has been planted in a street where spotted gums were felled 10 years ago.Credit: Paul Jeffers
On balance, he said he would not favour replacing the trees, because they are attractive and provide shade in the summer.
“In a strong wind or something like that, you start to wonder when one of those limbs is going to crack and come off,” he says. “They do drop a lot of leaves in the winter and it can be a pain in the arse, but so what? It’s just leaves.”
Adam Williams lives 200 metres down the road, across from a primary school. An apple myrtle soars above the roof of his single-storey house.
“The wind blows pretty hard, I know that much, and if that bad boy was to fall our way ...” he said.
“If it was my call I’d get rid of them for sure … I worry about safety because at 3.30 or 9am every day there’s a whole bunch of kids walking through the area.”
In a statement, Knox City Council said its green streets policy and street asset management plan provided clear decision-making platforms about planting, management and maintenance of street trees and nature strips.
Knox plants 2000 to 2500 trees a year, with an annual budget of $4.2 million for planting and maintenance in streets and parks.
Tall trees shade a footpath in Rowville.Credit: Paul Jeffers
According to Department of Transport and Planning data, Knox lost more than 1 per cent of its tree cover between 2014 and 2018.
Dr Greg Moore, an urban tree expert and senior associate researcher at the University of Melbourne, said there were significant consequences to removing street trees.
“In Melbourne we are losing canopy at about 1 to 1.5 per cent per annum and the consequence of this is the city is going to be much hotter. And so there are going to be people who die in heatwaves because of this, so it’s not a trivial matter,” Moore said.
“People often think of trees in terms of how pretty they are or as decoration, but they’re much more fundamental to urban infrastructure than that.”
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